I do not think we should be so certain of death as some Christians are, because the
Lord’s coming is much more certain than our dying. 504.203

Truly he comes quickly, but you must not read that “quickly” after your rendering,
for “quickly” with him may be slowly enough for us. We cannot measure the paces
of the Infinite, for the whole history of man is but a pin’s point to his eternity. 1323.631

The Lord’s “quickly” may not be my “quickly”; and if so, let him do what seemeth him
good. 1331.3

Lift up your eyes, ye sons of light, and anticipate the change, which will be as great
for you as for your Lord; for now ye are hidden even as he was hidden, and
misunderstood even as he was misunderstood when he walked among the sons of
men. “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him
as he is.” His manifestation will be our manifestation, and in the day in which he is
revealed in glory then shall his saints be glorified with him. 1477.312

If his first coming does not give you eternal life, his second coming will not. If you do
not hide in his wounds when he comes as your Saviour, there will be no hiding place
for you when he comes as your Judge. 1989.599

The prophet Ezekiel has been telling us many remarkable things which I shall not
attempt to explain to you; and my chief reason for not doing so is the fact that I do
not understand them. 2182.2

There are some great events of the future very clearly revealed. The prophecy is not
at all indistinct about the facts that will occur; but as to when they will occur, we
have no data. Some think that they have; but our Lord here seems to say that we do
not know the times and the seasons, and that it is not for us to know them. I pass no
censure upon brethren who think that, by elaborate calculations, they find out what
is to be in the future; I say that I pass no censure, but time has passed censure of the
strongest kind upon all their predecessors. 2330.494

Notice, next, dear friends, that it is not good for you to know the times and the
seasons. That is what the saviour means when he says, “It is not for you to know.”
For, first, it would distract your attention from the great things of which you have to
think. 2330.495

“But,” perhaps you say, “his saints have waited for him nearly two thousand years.”
What is that? Two thousand years? Think of those who waited four thousand years
before Christ came here to die. 2595.535

Leave the prophets to divide the profits which they get from simpletons; and as for
you, watch for Christ’s coming, whether it shall be to-day, or to-morrow, and set no
limits, and no dates, and no times. 3151.318

It may be, certainly it may be, that the Lord will speedily come, but it does not seem
to me at all likely that he will. We are to live anticipating his coming, as servants
who know they will have to give an account when he does come. That is the practical
bearing of the doctrine upon our life, but there are many prophecies yet to be fulfilled,
which seem to show that he is not coming just now (1866). 3382.570

The New Testament teems with allusions to that Day of Judgment, when the Lord
shall be revealed with flaming fire. I say it was so commonly understood, that Paul
had no need to say anything except “that day.” Questions will be asked to-night by
some, “When will that day come?” to which I would answer, it were better for us to be
prepared for it, come when it may, than to be anxious to fix its date. 3531.458

Some hearers are crazy after the mysteries of the future. Well, there are two or three
brethren in London who are always trumpeting and vialing. Go and hear them if you
want it, I have something else to do. 1217.91

In many cases sheer fanaticism has been the result of exclusively dwelling upon
prophecy, and probably more men have gone mad on that subject than on any other
religious question. Whether any man ever could become fanatical about Christ
crucified I cannot say, I have never heard of such an instance. 1264.644

The fact that Christ is coming ought never to make us any the less diligent in
pressing sinners to come to Christ. I deeply regret when I see persons so taken up
with prophecy that they forget evangelism. 1608.391

I reverence the prophecies; but I have small patience with those whose one business
is guessing at their meaning. One whose family was utterly unruly and immoral met
with a Christian friend, and said to him: “Do you quite see the meaning of the seven
Trumpets?” “No,” answered his friend, “I do not; and if you looked more to your
seven children the seven trumpets would suffer no harm.” 2042.503

We may make our prophetic charts if we like, but God will follow his own chart. 2441.566

It is idle to talk about looking for His coming if we never set our house in order, and
never put ourselves in readiness for His reception. CI150

It ought to be a daily disappointment when our Lord does not come; instead of being,
as I fear it is, a kind of foregone conclusion that He will not come just yet. CI151

The bright and hallowed doctrine of the second advent has been greatly revived in
our churches in these latter days, and I look for the best results in consequence.
There is always a danger lest it be perverted and turned by fanatical minds, by
prophetic speculations, into an abuse; but the doctrine in itself is one of the most
consoling, and, at the same time, one of the most practical, tending to keep the
Christian awake, because the bridegroom cometh at such an hour as we think not. 504.213

Far better would it be for you to stand on the tiptoe of expectation, and to be rather
disappointed to think that he does not come. 2302.160

I feel rebuked myself, sometimes, for not watching for my Master, when I know that,
at this very time, my dogs are sitting against the door, waiting for me; and long
before I reach home, there they will be, and at the first sound of the carriage-wheels,
they will lift up their voices with delight because their master is coming home. Oh,
if we loved our Lord as dogs love their masters, how we should catch the first sound
of his Coming, and be waiting, always waiting, and never happy until at last we
should see him! Pardon me for using a dog as a picture of what you ought to be; but
when you have attained to a state above that, I will find another illustration to
explain my meaning. 2302.163

The hour of his appearing is not revealed, in order that we may always stand
a-tiptoe, expecting it to be to-day, or to-morrow, for he has said, “Behold I come
quickly.” 3181.39

Some think that this descent of the Lord will be post-millennial—that is, after the
thousand years of his reign. I cannot think so. I conceive that the advent will be
pre-millenial; that he will come first; and then will come the millennium as the result
of his personal reign upon earth. 627.249

You expect to reign upon earth, but it is with him; you do not expect a millennium
apart from the King. 1281.129

Paul does not paint the future with rose-colour: he is not smooth-tongued prophet of
a golden age, into which this dull earth may be imagined to be glowing. There are
sanguine brethren who are looking forward to everything growing better and better
and better, until at last, this present age ripens into a millennium. They will not be
able to sustain their hopes, for Scripture gives them no solid basis to rest upon. We
who believe that there will be no millennial reign without the King, and who expect
no rule of righteousness except from the appearing of the righteous Lord are nearer
the mark. Apart from the second Advent of our Lord, the world is more likely to sink
into a pandemonium than to rise into a millennium. 2088.301

Do not dream that the world will go on improving and improving, and that the
improvements will naturally culminate in the millenium. No such thing. It may grow
better for a while, better under certain aspects; but, afterwards the power of the
better element will ebb out like the sea, even though each wave should look like an
advance. That day shall not come except there be a falling away first. 2203.257

I think that the millennium will commence after his coming, and not before it. I
cannot imagine the kingdom with the King absent. 2302.159

In Enoch we see a type of those of God’s people who will go home peacefully before
the last closing struggle. Ere the first clash of swords at Armageddon, such Enochs
will be taken from the evil to come. 2147.301

Whenever the Lord lays bare his arm for war he first gathers his saints into a place
of safety. He did not destroy the world by the flood till Noah and his family were safe
in the ark. He would not suffer a single firedrop to fall on Sodom till Lot had escaped
to Zoar. He carefully preserves his own; nor flood, nor flame, nor pestilence, nor
famine shall do them ill. We read in the Revelation that the angel said, “Hurt not the
earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in
their foreheads.” Vengeance must sheath her sword, till love has housed its darlings.
When Christ cometh to destroy the earth, he will first catch away his people. Ere the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the pillars of the universe shall rock and
reel beneath the weight of wrathful deity, he will have caught up his elect into the
air, so that they shall ever be with the Lord. 3377.507

He is surely coming; and though the date of his return is hidden from our sight, all
the signs of the times look as if he might come very speedily. 2477.376

I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet; neither do I profess to be able to explain all
the prophecies of this blessed Book. I believe that many of them will only be
explained as the events occur which they foretell. 2910.552

I am not given to prophesying, and I fear that the fixing of dates and periods has
been exceedingly injurious to the whole system of premillenial teaching; but I think I
clearly see in Scripture that the Lord Jesus will come—so far I go, and take my
stand—that he will come personally to reign upon this earth. At his coming it
appears clear to me that he will gather together the Jewish people, that Jerusalem
shall become the metropolis of the new empire which shall then extend from pole to
pole, from the river even to the ends of the earth. 604.694

Many persons say that Christ is certainly coming again, but that he is coming
spiritually. This way of putting the matter seems to me to be a subterfuge. A man,
who is here already, cannot be said to be expected to come; and it is certain that
Christ is, at this moment, spiritually present with his people. 2872.98

Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when he has graven thee
upon His own palms? ME624

If he had meant to cast you away he would have done so long ago. If he wanted
reasons for rejecting you he had reasons from all eternity, for he knew what you
would be. No sin in you has been a surprise to him. 1121.391

If believers are lost, God loses more than they do, for he loses his honour, he loses his
character for truthfulness, and the glory of his name is tarnished. 1429.468

Eternity shall not reveal a single instance in which Christ Jesus cast away a sinner
that came to him. All hell shall be searched through, and they shall ask them, “Is
there one here that can say that Christ rejected him when he came to him?” and
though glad enough to blaspheme, there shall not be found among the damned a
single tongue that shall dare to utter such a baseless slander against the Friend of
sinners. 1489.465

If anybody said he had eternal life and lost it, he would be flatly contradicting
himself. It could not be eternal, or else he must still have it. 2120.691
Further, if Christ had intended to cast us away because of our sins, why did he ever
take us on? 2720.147

True, we are unworthy, but we always were, and if thou didst want a reason for
leaving us thou hast had ten thousand reasons long ago. 2923.87

We feel these bodies to be real when we have pain in them, and this world to be real
when we are weighted with its crosses: yet the body is a poor tent, and the world a
mere bubble. AP54

Children are said to be guilty of trifling! Are not ye also triflers? If it comes to an
examination upon the matter of trifling, who are the greatest triflers, children or
full-grown men and women? What is greater trifling than for a man to live for the
enjoyment of sensual pleasures, or for a woman to live to dress herself and waste her
time in company? Nay, more, what is the accumulation of wealth for the sake of it
but miserable trifling? Child’s play without the amusement! Most men are triflers on
a larger scale than children, and that is the main difference. CC46

All that Nature spins time will unravel, to the eternal confusion of all who are
clothed therein. ME288

Set not your affections upon things of earth; set your whole heart upon things above,
for here the rust corrupteth, and the moth devoureth, and the thief breaketh through,
but there all joys are perpetual and eternal. What is there here after all but
cloud-land? Why seek we to be lords of acres of mere mist? What are earth’s treasures
but vapour; will you heap up for yourself haze and fog? Cloud and mist will pass
away, and if these be your riches, how poverty-stricken will you be when you can
carry none of these airy riches into the land of solid wealth. 647.484

As the pendulum of yonder clock continues unceasingly to beat like the heart of time,
as morning dawn gives place to evening shade, and the seasons follow in constant
cycle, we are drifted along the river of time nearer to the ocean of eternity. 896.581

O blind world, if thou wert wise, thou wouldst amend thy line of action, and begin to
think of the hereafter too; for, brethren, the hereafter will soon be here. 1364.402

To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live; to be ready for eternity is in the best
sense to be ready for time. Who is so fit to live on earth as the man who is fit to live
in heaven? 1373.512

That only is worth my having which I can have for ever. That only is worth my
grasping which death cannot tear out of my hand. 1740.509

Earthworms as they are, the earth contents them. If any man becomes unworldly,
and makes spiritual things his one object, they despise him as a dreamy enthusiast.
Many men think that the things of religion are merely meant to be read of, and to be
preached about; but that to live for them would be to spend a dreamy, unpractical
existence. Yet the spiritual, is after all, the only real: the material is in deepest truth
the visionary and unsubstantial. Unless the Lord renews the heart, men will always
prefer the bird-in-the-hand of this life to the bird-in-the-bush of the life to come. 2047.558

Are we not to leave the future as we leave the present, in the hand of God? And will
not all be well? The Lord did very well without us before we were born, and he will do
very well without us after we are dead. I will not say that he will not notice our
departure, for he notices everything; but it will be an almost inconsiderable item in
the innumerable details of his universal government. 2462.201

I have come to reckon that nothing is worth seeking after but that which will survive
the tomb. 2917.16

We cling with dreadful tenacity to this poor life, and the little which we foolishly call
our all. It were well if we could cling with such fast hold to the life that is to come, for
that alone is worth clinging to, since it is for ever, whereas this is to be but for a little
time even at the longest. 3021.16

Brethren and sisters, let us hold very loosely everything here, but let us get a very
firm grip of everything that is to be hereafter. 3032.153

This life is made up of shadows: substance lies elsewhere. 3321.466

Have you never heard the story of Archæus, the Grecian despot, who was going to a
feast, and on the way a messenger brought him a letter, and seriously importuned
him to read it? It contained tidings of a conspiracy that had been formed against him,
that he should be killed at the feast. He took the letter, and put it into his pocket. In
vain the messenger urged that it was concerning serious matters. “Serious matters
to-morrow,” said Archæus, “feasting to-night.” That night the dagger reached his
heart while he had about him the warning which, had he heeded it, would have
averted the peril. Alas! too many men say, “Serious things to-morrow!” 3538.547

When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience,
then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time. ME280

A deaf and dumb man in one of the institutions in Paris, was asked to write upon the
slate his idea of God’s eternity, and he wrote the following forcible lines: “It is
duration without beginning or end; existence without bounds or dimensions; present
without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age, life without
birth or death, to-day without yesterday or to-morrow.” “I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last.” 546.714

Certain men in these days declare that “everlasting” does not mean everlasting, but
indicates a period to which an end will come sooner or later; I have no sympathy with
them, and feel no inclination to renounce the everlastingness of heaven and other
divine blessings in order to gratify the tastes of wicked men by denying the eternity
of future punishments. 1186.438

A new way of reading the Bible has been invented in these highly enlightened days.
I used to get on exceedingly well with the book years ago, for it seemed clear and
plain enough, but modern interpreters would puzzle us out of our wits and out of our
souls, if they could, by their vile habit of giving new meanings to plain words. Thank
God, I keep to the old simple way; but I am informed that the inventors of the new
minimizing glasses manage to read the big words small, and they have even read
down the word “everlasting” into a little space of time. Everlasting may be six weeks
or six months according to them. I use no such glasses; my eyes remain the same,
and “everlasting” is “everlasting” to me whether I read of everlasting life or
everlasting punishment. If I clip the word in one place I must do so in another, and it
will never do to have a terminable heaven. I cannot afford to give it up here when its
meaning is joyous to the saint, and therefore not there when its sound is terrible to
the sinner. 1413.271

Time tries most things, but eternity tries all. 1736.465

What saith the Scripture? “Eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord”—not,
a moment, and then it is all over; but eternal destruction. The Scripture has put the
two side by side, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal.” The same word applies to both. As long as heaven shall shine so
long hell shall burn. As long as the saints are happy, so long shall those whose
impenitence has made them castaways be wretched. 3324.497

Depend upon it, if it were, on the whole, best that the devil should be killed, he would
be killed; and if it had been, after all, most for God’s glory that there should be no
evil, there would have been none. 2862.604

I am not so much troubled about how evil came into the world as about helping get it
out. 3057.450

The worst sort of clever men are those who know better than the Bible and are so
learned that they believe that the world had no Maker, and that men are only
monkeys with their tails rubbed off. PP84

The age is getting worse and worse, and man, by a process of evolution, is evolving a
devil. WWi136

You cannot convince the simplest boy in the street that somehow or other he was
developed from an oyster, or some creature inferior to that, and yet these profound
thinkers bow down to such a belief as this. 1032.58

Speak of evolution,—here it is,—“When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Darkness never begets light, filth
never creates purity, hell never yields heaven, and depravity never produces grace.
1829.146

Within fifty years children in the school will read of extraordinary popular delusions,
and this will be mentioned as one of the most absurd of them.
1911.403

If God’s word be true, evolution is a lie. 1911.403

The philosophy now in vogue labours to shut God out of his own creation. They
inform us that by some means this world and all that is therein were evolved. Even
this will not long content the men of progress: they care nothing for evolution in
itself, but only so far as it may serve their purpose of escaping from the thought of
God. 1919.495

If those who believed in evolution said their prayers rightly, they would begin them
with, “Our Father, which art up a tree.” 2056.663

Notwithstanding all that great men may say about what they evolve from their own
consciousness, I think that the only thing a man can evolve from his own
consciousness is folly and sin; for there is nothing else there. 2251.171

They will speak, amid roars of laughter, of evolution; and the day will come, when
there will not be a child but will look upon it as being the most foolish notion that
ever crossed the human mind. 2255.221

These men have such wonderful theories that it really seems surprising that they do
not themselves make a few worlds, since they profess to have found out so many
ways of making them. 2765.65

Some men attempt to excuse their own negligence by blaming the times. What have
you and I to do with the times, except to serve our God in them? AM71

Beware of aptness in making an excuse. BA22

The first sin which came into the world hardened man’s heart in a most terrific
manner, so that he dared to excuse himself and even to charge God as being
indirectly the author of his sin, by giving him the woman. 620.158

I do not think I have ever been so much astonished at the invention of locomotive
engines, electric telegraphs, or any other feats of human mechanism, as I have
been at the marvellous ingenuity of simple people in finding out reasons why they
should not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 750.268

Ye would count it a strange thing, if, when a man condemned to be hanged had a
pardon presented to him, he were so ingenious as to find out reasons why he should
not escape the gallows; and when these reasons were all refuted, their fallacy
exposed, and the good tidings confirmed, he should keep on finding out more reasons
why the sentence of execution should be carried into effect. 750.268

When a man wants to beat a dog, they say he can always find a stick to do it with;
and when a man wants to find excuses for not believing in Christ, he can always
discover one somewhere or other. 853.69

Sometimes there is a want of way because there is a want of will. Though I do not go
so far as to allege that this is your case, we know too well that “cannot” often does
mean “will not,” and not to have triumphed may mean that you have not tried. 1513.13

Yes, my dear sirs, you can find time for all those enlargements, and speculations, and
engagements; let me be plain with you, and say that you could find time for thought
about your soul if you had a mind to do so. To plead that you have no time for religion
is a fraud. It will not do! It is lying unto God to say that you have no time. When a
man wants to do a thing, if he has no time, he makes time. 2122.19

There is a sense in which, so long as we are here, we are absent from the Lord; and
one great saint used to say upon his birthday that he had been so many years in
banishment from the Lord: to abide in this lowland country, so far from the ivory
palaces, is a banishment at the very best. 1136.571

I am looking for my heritage in the world to come. Now, my brethren, the Lord does
not try many of you in that manner. He keeps you on short commons, embitters your
bread, and mingles wormwood with your cup. Why is this? Why, because you are not
to have your portion here. You once half thought you might have two heavens, but
you were deceived. 1430.475

Blessed is he who expects little, for he shall have but little disappointment.
Remember never to set thy desires very high. He that has aspirations to the moon,
will be disappointed if he only reaches half as high; whereas, if he had aspired lower,
he would be agreeably disappointed when he found himself mounting higher than he
first expected. 180.125

It is true that we are immortal till our work is done; but then we usually think that
our work is something other than it is. It was never the work of Moses to lead Israel
into the promised land. It was his wish, but not his work. His work he saw; but his
wish he saw not. 1966.318

There may be as many other worlds and sorts of beings existent as there are sands
upon the sea shore, for aught we know; and the Lord may have been occupied in ages
past with ten thousand glorious plans, and economies, as yet unrevealed to man.
1265.651

It may be that there are innumerable beings, in yonder starry worlds, as countless
as the sands on the sea-shore, and that Jesus is Lord over all these; yet he bears such
a special relationship towards this little planet, and this poor race of fallen men and
women, that this round earth calls him hers as no other world can call him; and we
his people call him ours as no other creatures can, for, just as truly as he is God, so is
he also man. 2806.555

The revelations of astronomy seem to tell us that he made them (planets) as lavishly
as men might cast seed when they sow it broadcast many acres. There they glitter in
the expanse of space; for aught we know, every one of them filled with happy beings.
3403.196

What a mean and beggarly thing it is for a man only to do his work well when he is
watched. Such oversight is for boys at school and mere hirelings. WCo78

Gracious minds outgrow the governance and stimulus which comes of the oversight
of mortal man. God’s own Spirit dwells within us, and we serve the Lord from an
inward principle, which is not fed from without. WCo78